English Asterix Digital Comics? Available Now In Europe!
On Monday, Izneo.com launched the complete Asterix library in English digitally. There’s a big banner across the front page and everything.
This is the first time Asterix has been made available as a digital download in English. Like Metallica and iTunes, it held out for as long as it could. Now, here we are.
The Catch
Let’s take a look at a listing:
Zoom in on that gray bar:
Sigh.
Let’s double check on the Izneo iPad app:
No Asterix in English yet for those in North America.
I don’t normally use emoji or emoticons on this site, but:
=(
What Does This Mean?
Comic books being released in different parts of the world exclusively is nothing new.
Digital products being region locked is nothing new. Your DVDs and Blu-Rays are most all region locked.
But Asterix has never been available as a digital comic in English before today. Is this release a trial balloon? Or is it a sign of something bigger?
Will we see Comixology announce the release of Asterix in North America later this week? Am I just being too hopeful here?
I hope we do see the release next. It only makes sense. Let’s hope they can match the Izneo price, too.
A Bigger Library
Not only does the Izneo catalog include the 35 Uderzo-drawn books that I’ll be reviewing this year, but they have two more.
“Asterix: How Obelix Fell Into the Magic Potion” doesn’t get a volume number, but it’s part of the collection. It’s a 32 page children’s book originally written by Goscinny in the mid-1960s for Pilote Magazine, but finally published in 1989 as a book of its own, complete with new art by Uderzo to fill it up. It’s a completely different style from Uderzo, and completely charming. If you’re wondering what the story is about, take a look at that title again. Asterix and Obelix are six years old in this book.
(Update: Whoops, that’s part of the 35 books, already. Nevermind.)
“Asterix and the Vikings” is a tie-in to the movie of the same title, from 2006. It’s basically an Art Of book for an animated movie. It’s 73 pages long. Uderzo does some drawings over early models to correct them, but that’s all of him I see in the book.
No, they haven’t figured out how to get “Asterix on the Warpath: The Pop-Up” to work in a digital edition yet…
I’m sure I’ll review the other two books more completely by year’s end now. Stay tuned…
How Do The New Editions Look?
These are the latest and greatest editions of the printed books, with restored line work that was missing in the 2004 editions that I’ve been reviewing the series from.
Here’s an example, with the 2004 edition at the top and the more recent recolored and re-shot version at the bottom.
There’s a little softness on the digital image at the bottom there from me zooming in a bit to screen grab a bigger image. But check out some of the new lines we see now. In the second panel, look at Vitalstatix’s nose and Getafix’s neck. All of the lines are a little thicker, and missing ones now appear.
The coloring is taking me some time to get used to. It’s a little bolder, but also filled with a lot more gradients. It reminds me of Susan Daigle-Leach’s coloring on the Duck books in the 90s for Gladstone/Gemstone. The new coloring looks more like an animated cartoon. Gone is the texture in the colors, replaced only with gradients.
LOTS of bright gradients and attempts to made two dimensional drawings look for three dimensional.
Here’s another example:
Here you can see more examples of where they changed the colors. Most dramatically, the bright yellow huts in the background have been toned down to a tan color. The villager on the right in all red in the 2004 edition on top is now in brown and blue in the new edition below. Here you can also see how they stripped out the texture in the colors. Look at the patch of grass to the left of Cacofonix. It’s a flat green now.
There’s better definition in the inks lines now in places like the back of Obelix’s hair, the belt on the villager at far right, and the thatching on the roofs in the background.
Further Reading
If you’re curious about how they did all this work, there’s an explanation on Asterix.com. Run it through a translator and you’ll get a good idea. It’s an impressive piece of work.
Here are some more comparisons, from all editions of the series.
Special thanks to Dan and JC for providing those links earlier in The Asterix Agenda’s comment sections…
What Does It All Mean?
Perhaps nothing. Perhaps this is a big tease.
But maybe this is the first step in getting Asterix in English available digitally in North America, as well. I want that to be the truth. I want it to be easier for more people to read these books in any way possible.
Next year is Asterix’s 60th anniversary. I hope they do it by then, at least.
Okay that’s really interesting. Especially the panels were you highlight the colour changes. I’m in two minds. The blocking of the huts in a flat, more muted colour certainly works to make the foreground pop out much more, but damn those backgrounds add so much favour to the books.
That said there is no denying that the line work is the real winner here and for that alone well done those digital remaster folks. This re-read has certainly made me appreciate that the quality of re-production really impacts on my enjoyment of the comics. My old original (to me as a kid) books with some pretty dodgy reduction and so much horrible colouring that the volumes I’ve replaced with newer Orion editions just gleam. So hey bring on the new stuff I say…. even if I will grumble and moan about the odd thing!
There’s the danger that we’ll always like the version we grew up with the most, and will automatically shun everything else. I didn’t start reading Asterix until I was in my late 20s, I guess, so I’m a bit looser with that. Still, I worry that I’ll be forever attached to that first version. I’ve always liked the Orion versions, but I’ve also been aware that there’s major room for improvement. I need some time to get used to this new version before I decide if I’m basing my opinion more on what is “best” and what is “most familiar.” There’s a critical divide here I need to jump over. But, yeah, I can’t wait to write that article sometime in the future once I have it figured out. =)
I agree with you. I realize every day in my life that nostalgia plays a great part in defining the things I like now, depending on when I was first exposed to them. That goes for books, movies, music, almost everything. Whoever said that the Golden Age is about 12 was dead on the money.
Urgh! This is way too flashy for me, but I guess you can’t escape computer coloring any more. It all depends now on the talent of the colorist to apply some nuance to the work. I recognize the technological progress but I remain fond of the original colors, in spite of the flaws of the weekly periodical production process of the times. It’s definitely softer and easier on the eyes, all in all a testimony of the era in which it was made. A bit like reading a silver age comic from the original floppy rather than from a Masterworks or an Omnibus. It’s cruder, for sure, but gives off a better feel for the material. Or maybe it’s just me, I’m old-fashioned that way 🙂
No idea why they’re blocking access to North-Americans, you’d imagine that the purpose of digital would be the largest access? That’s puzzling.
I’ll probably do a full write-up on the coloring differences, but it’s funny to me to see how coloring styles shifted with the advent of Photoshop. The heavy gradient style of art has been out of popularity for a while now, but I guess this project snuck in ahead of that shift. The Carl Barks Library, as Fantagraphics is reprinting it now, is being recolored to look nearly as flat as the original newspaper print forced it to be. Meanwhile, Asterix is going for bright, shiny, and a gradient on every square inch. Fascinating.
Right now, I prefer the 2004 coloring, but I also wonder if that’s just because it’s the style I discovered Asterix in, and the only one I’ve seriously ever looked at.
It’s a separate license for American rights. I’m checking to see if someone else has claimed those yet. So far, nobody’s talking. (That doesn’t mean anything, mind you. I’m a fly fit only for swatting.)
I’m very upset that this ends Sunday afternoon and I haven’t got the chance to be in Paris long enough to see it.
http://www.tcj.com/the-french-way/
Those sound like fun exhibits! We’ll never get anything like that oner here. sigh.
I just read the whole write-up on Goscinny’s life, and — wow. I knew the broad outline, but didn’t know lots of details like May 1968 and the story behind his (completely unnecessary and maddening) death.
Yep. We lost a great man in a very stupid way. He was the age I am now. Makes you stop and think.